This invention concerns in particular, but not exclusively, a cooking method for electrical appliances for mixing and cooking foods with fat and comprising a stirring means arranged inside a receiving means (also called a chamber) arranged in a case housing a hot air heating device, in which the stirring means and the chamber are designed to be put into motion with respect to each other, in order to mix and stir the food and the fat inside the chamber, and in particular food in pieces, such as French fries, chicken pieces, etc. The document WO 2006/000699 discloses such cooking appliances.
The document WO 2007/088279 discloses a cooking appliance of the aforementioned type comprising a stirring paddle rotated inside a food receiving means (also called a chamber). The geometry of the stirring paddle and the movement of the stirring paddle inside the chamber help to reorient the foods, in particular French fries, in relation to each other. The different surfaces of the French fries may then successively come into contact with the bottom of the chamber expected to collect the fat, the French fries at the top of the chamber being more exposed to the hot air flow. These arrangements make it possible to obtain more uniform cooking. However, one drawback of the aforementioned construction resides in the fact that the mixing system does not permit cooking all types of foods added to the chamber, such as “soft” foods. In fact, this mixing puts mechanical stress on soft food, which cannot withstand the force applied because of the food's stability at the start of cooking. For example, types of soft foods include, but are not limited to, doughnuts.
A cooking method is known, using an appliance as mentioned above, which permits cooking foods covered in breadcrumbs. This method has several steps, including an initial step in which there is no mixing of foods, that is, in which the stirring means is deactivated. However, this method is not suitable for cooking “soft” foods, because the mixing performed in the later steps has the effect of deforming foods such as doughnuts, making them less attractive to the consumer. Moreover, in this method, soft foods have a thick crust and do not rise sufficiently.